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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013300">3 Sentence Ficathon 2020: Tolkien</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke'>LadyBrooke</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Angst, Humor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:35:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,940</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Various Tolkien based fills for the 2020 3 Sentence Ficathon on Dreamwidth.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Angst - On the Ice, In M-e, & In the Halls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Pairings or characters for each fill are noted in the bold text before the actual fill, along with the prompt that inspired it and any warnings. </p><p>I might return to some of these and write more at some point. Not all of them are exactly three sentences, because I am bad at sticking to that if not forced to.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>1. </strong> <b>Nimloth &amp; Fëanor, say what you want </b></p><p>She looks like his mother did, silver haired and sharp grey eyes and spirit trapped in these Halls. But his mother is alive once more, and this Queen is one of the Sindar instead.</p><p>"Say what you want of me," Fëanor says and does not let her see his shock at her appearance. He will refuse, of course, if she asks for his sons - they have done ill, but it was Fëanor's guidance that led them here and he will suffer the consequences for them. </p><p>"To speak of things you should have been told centuries ago," Nimloth says quietly, and he realizes she is old - older than him, old enough to have known his parents on the March, old enough to answer questions his father had never been willing to after his mother's death. </p><p>Somehow this hurts more than if she had fought him.</p><p> </p><p><strong>2. </strong> <b>Maedhros &amp; Fingon, just let me be the villain</b></p><p>"I am a Kinslayer too, Maitimo, you know that, so why are you trying to take all the blame on your own shoulders?" Fingon pleads in the middle of their latest argument. </p><p>Thousands of answers swirl through Maedhros' mind, but he picks the least important one when he says, "Your father is the High-King now, and it would be politically disadvantageous for his heir to be one. You will have to let me be the villain in this."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>3. Finrod &amp; Turgon, too cold to sleep alone (canon character deaths) </b>
</p><p>Turgon realizes Finrod lied as soon as his cousin takes Elenwë's spot in their tent. </p><p>Finrod has slept alone on ice for months, as they wandered across this forsaken land of ice.</p><p>If it was too cold to sleep alone, as Finrod had argued, Finrod would be long - Finrod would be - his mind freezes on the last word as his tears over Elenwë's death freeze on his cheeks. </p><p>Finrod does not say a word at Turgon's knowing look, but tucks Idril between them and reaches to brush the tears away before more can freeze.</p><p> </p><p><b>4. Oropher, </b> <b> <em>everybody knows that the war is over/everybody knows that the good guys lost </em>(canon character deaths) </b></p><p>Beleriand sinks beneath the waves, taking Elu's kingdom and Elu's body, Nimloth's crown and the twins' fate, and Oropher's home and Oropher's wife with it. </p><p>The Valar say they have won and they may go to Valinor now, if the Noldor will only ask forgiveness and the Sindar only agree. </p><p>Oropher turns to the East with his family instead, the one and only time he agrees with Galadriel - they have lost and cannot trust in promises now.</p><p> </p><p><b>5. Maedhros, </b> <b> <em>kingmaker, oathbreaker</em> </b></p><p>Maitimo kneels beside his father’s deathbed and swears to keep his brothers safe, to fulfill the existing Oath, and to be a good King from the line of Finwë - it is unspoken but understood that only the line of Míriel is to be king, even if Nolofinwë finds his way to these shores one day. </p><p>Maitimo is captured - Findekano comes to rescue him. </p><p>Maedhros kneels in front of Fingolfin and passes the crown to him, breaking his latest vow and making a king.</p><p> </p><p><b>6. Nimloth/Dior, </b> <b> <em>one day I’ll come back if the door’s still open/just promise to keep your heart broken </em>(canon character deaths) </b></p><p>"My mother brought my father back," Dior says one night after they first marry, when the chill from outside is almost enough to make them both shiver and allows them to hide that they shake from fear. "She was heartbroken at his death - I'll come back if I die," he says with fake certainty, "I'll come back as long as you still love me, so just leave me a space in your life."</p><p>Nimloth smiles, biting back her memories of Luthien and Beren, darker thoughts of Finwë and Miriel before they departed to Valinor and the darkest thoughts of Míriel's fate, and merely says, "I will."</p><p> </p><p><b>7. Maedhros &amp; Elrond, </b> <b> <em>you can love a monster - it can even love you back </em> </b></p><p>"Do you understand what these mean?" Maedhros roared, holding up his scarred wrist on one side and his sword on the other. "Whatever songs my brother sings for you, he and I are both Kinslayers - the monsters your mother and father would have told you stories of, and no matter how much we both love you two-"</p><p>Maedhros had not meant to go as far as that in his rant, and Elrond seized upon it as he said, "But you do love us back."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>8. Elrond &amp; Gil-galad, “monsters are better at loving than heroes” </b>
</p><p>"They say Maedhros and Maglor were monsters by the time they took Elros and you in," Gil-galad said, voice carefully free of judgment. </p><p>Elrond's voice was just as carefully devoid when he replied, "Perhaps. But in that case, monsters stayed longer than heroes in those days, and it was easier for a monster to act on love for us than for a hero to act on such."<br/><br/></p><p> </p><p>
  <b>9. Fingolfin &amp; Maedhros, the only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage (discussion of suicide) </b>
</p><p>It is Fingolfin who strides through the Halls and defends Maedhros in the wake of his suicide. The rest of their family is too distraught or judgmental, and those who try to claim Maedhros is weak for this are quickly shouted down by Fingolfin.</p><p>Maedhros eventually comes to himself enough to seek Fingolfin to ask him why, to which Fingolfin turns his head and says with false calm and weary eyes, "The only difference between our deaths is that they labeled my fight against Morgoth a last stand and your jump into a volcano a suicide."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Angst - In Valinor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>1. </strong> <b>Finarfin, wearing a loved one’s clothes</b></p><p>After everything, after death and darkness and despair, Finarfin realizes that he does not have clothes suitable for a King, nor is there time to make some before he must appear before what remains of the court. </p><p>His own were always carefully constructed to give the image he wanted, of a prince so beneath notice and beneath the crown that neither of his brothers ever looked at him as a threat to their positions. </p><p>He goes through his father's closet and his brother's, carefully pulls out only those pieces of his half-brother's and nephews that will not be recognized, and tries not to let his tears stain the delicate fabrics as he makes himself into an echo of others.</p><p> </p><p><b>2. Finarfin, disappearing and leaving behind a letter marked ‘open when [blank]’ (implied character death - suicide or fading)</b> <b></b></p><p>Finarfin waits for Fingolfin to be reembodied and crowned, and then he disappears, leaving behind a stack of letters with notes like 'open when Artaresto returns' and 'open when my half-brother is returned'. </p><p>Rumors spread - he is in the wilds, he has crossed the Ice, he has stolen a ship and sailed to find his daughter. </p><p>News comes from the Halls one day, on Fëanor's bloodless lips, "Arafinwë is with Atar."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>3. Finarfin &amp; Fëanor, by the time you smell it burning it’s already too late (implied character death)</b>
</p><p>The smell of burning papers floats through the palace, choking Finarfin as he rushes to the library. </p><p>Fëanor has been reborn - Fëanor is supposed to be better; Atar is in the Halls forever, or so it seems, Maglor is gone across the sea and there is no word of him ever returning. </p><p>Fëanor is bitter and grieving, and the remaining works he had guarded so carefully in his first life warp and fall into ashes before Finarfin's eyes, while Fëanor's spirit extinguishes in despair.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>4. Anairë &amp; Nimloth, “tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine” </b>
</p><p>There was always another ball held in Tirion, one where elves from the city decked themselves out in glittering jewels and mingled with those who came from out of the city, and one where nobody ever discussed or even hinted at their despair. </p><p>Anairë hated them with a loathing only surpassed by her loathing for Morgoth - 'Why,' she raged in the quiet stillness of her own home, 'does no one wish to admit their despair or work together to fix matters, instead only wallowing in fake happiness?'</p><p>Then on the heels of the latest releases from Mandos, there was relief in the form of the last Queen of Doriath, who abandoned her jewels on her dresser in favor of loud reminders of the despair of the Sindar and a sharp smile full of threats to those who would silence them, at Anairë's words.</p><p> </p><p><b>5. Finwë &amp; Finarfin, </b> <b> <em>when I left my home/when I left my throne</em> </b></p><p>In this, as in all things, Finarfin is the least like their father of all his siblings.</p><p>Finwë left his throne and most of his people to keep the son who meant the most to him; Finwë had died because of it, but by all accounts had considered himself at home wherever his beloved eldest son was. </p><p>Finarfin leaves his home on the beaches of Alqualondë to take a crown and a throne he ran away from at the age forty-nine; Finarfin lives and rules in the shadow of a city that is empty of his loved ones.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>6. Nimloth, “Hell is the Absence of the People You Long For”</b>
</p><p>Valinor, according to many, was a land of plenty and a land of joy. </p><p>To Nimloth, it was a land of torment quite like the torments experienced on the March, when loved ones could disappear forever at any moment.</p><p>Except Valinor was worse - in Doriath, no one had told her to smile even with her mother gone; in Valinor they all expect her to smile through the loss of her mother, her husband, and her sons.</p><p> </p><p><b>7. Finrod, </b> <b> <em>in love with the end of the world </em>(sort of suicidal ideation) </b></p><p>When Galadriel arrives, she brings dozens of books for Finrod. He reads of Harad and of the Long Shore, of Gondor and of the lands to the east, of queens and of death cults, and it is the last which rests like a stone in his stomach until he slams the book closed. </p><p>He is not, he tells himself, like them: they desire to bring Morgoth back and the end of the world with it; he does not desire Morgoth back, he just waits for the day that the Final Battle comes and hopes for even one short glance of his old friends - it is different, he insists in faint whispers to himself (his mind tells him it is the same, and he lifts the shaking hand that had closed the book to take a drink of his wine).</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>8. Nimloth &amp; Finrod, misery made beautiful </b>
</p><p>Nimloth weaves her crown of flowers, and does not let those around her forget that her sons and husband are gone and her lands are denied her. They remark first on the beauty of the flowers, and secondly on Nimloth's calm face as she recounts the meaning of them and the deep grief behind such. </p><p>She does not see Finrod much - he had been Beren and Luthien's friend, but they seem to mourn differently until the day he visits her with a bag of blue gemstones cut to look like teardrops. She notes one set into a metal cuff he fidgets with as he says, "You need not use them if you do not wish but they will make your meaning clearer to my father's people - my half-uncle made such infamous while he was mourning his mother."</p><p> </p><p><strong>9. </strong> <b>Maglor, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” </b></p><p>Valinor is painful now, when no one can understand what he is saying. Maglor had never given a thought to how the language would change, but he has lived for so long among Men that there are words he needs that do not exist in any tongue of elves that dwell in Valinor. </p><p>There is nothing else to do besides make new words, and he does while wishing that he did not need to.</p><p> </p><p><strong>10. </strong><b>Finwë/Indis/Míriel, “I’m not brave any more darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.”</b> <strong> (mental illness)</strong></p><p>Indis is glad for Námo's warning as she steps into the room, bright blue cloak trailing against a stone floor as devoid of color as everything else in the Halls. </p><p>"Finwë," she says, as she drops to her knees beside her husband. "Oh, Finwë."</p><p>He flinches at the noise, as he had never done before. "I told him not to send for anyone when he came up with this plan. I cannot be brave anymore - I cannot stand before my children, let alone risk anyone wishing to crown me king once more. They broke me, and I should be left here with all the others they have broken."</p><p>"You do not have to be brave, only Míriel and I know of your release, and we shall be brave for you. She waits with a carriage outside, will you trust me to take you there?"</p><p>She sits beside him until he finally nods, and then Indis picks up Finwë and carries him from the Halls while his long black hair falls down the front of her cloak and spirits tortured by Morgoth stare from the corners. </p><p>She does not allow herself to think of them as broken.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>11. Fëanor, rejected first drafts</b>
</p><p>The first draft of the Shibboleth is written even before Fëanor makes his own script and is frantically scribbled as he cries over the news his mother will not be permitted to return and his father will remarry. </p><p>He never shows anyone else. It remains under a loose floorboard in Fëanor's childhood bedroom until Finarfin finds it one day when his brother is long dead and adds his own tears to Fëanor's.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. AUs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>1. </strong> <b>Lúthien/a son of Fëanor, Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably (Character Death)</b></p><p>Beren is dead, Finrod beside him, and Lúthien does not return to Doriath to mourn her losses as her father would wish her to, but instead continues on and cuts a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. </p><p>Doriath will not give her the war against Morgoth she wishes, and neither will Orodreth in his brother's caves. </p><p>She arrives at Maedhros' keep two days after Celegorm and Curufin, and presses past them into their brother's office. All seven brothers watch her as she places the Silmaril on the table. "Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably, and I shall not hope for love again in this life. But thou are in need of aid to fulfill thine oath, and I am in need of an army."</p><p>She does not really care which she marries to gain such, if any of them, though she assumes Maedhros wise enough to not propose Celegorm or Curufin if he does judge it necessary. Her heart is lost with Beren, and she does not intend to remain here longer than it takes to avenge him.</p><p> </p><p><strong>2. </strong> <b>Finwë, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated </b></p><p>Finwë comes to the city too late to stop his grandsons, but soon enough that he can pass their claims of his death off as a trick of Melkor's. He worries that Námo will expose him for what he is, but Námo only inclines his head in acknowledgement of what has been done. </p><p>Míriel had always been bright - brighter the Finwë, better suited at digging for information not meant for elves and bringing it to light, and Námo had known she would send her husband back to life now to stop worse from happening.</p><p> </p><p><strong>3. </strong> <b>Celebrimbor/Celebrían/Elrond, “We’re going to need more bookshelves” (Past torture) </b></p><p>Celebrimbor never quite remembers how he ended up in this situation. He knows, with bone deep fear and weariness, that Sauron had done something to drive him mad and that Celebrimbor had spent centuries in the ruins of his former city, sulking and snarling at any who came near.</p><p>He also knows that at some point Celebrian had wandered in, taking books from his library and reading them, speaking of her husband (at that time, he had not know she meant Elrond) and how greatly he would love to see such books. </p><p>He had still been more beast than elf when he agreed to allow Elrond to come, he thinks, but they had not let him remain so. </p><p>"We will need more bookshelves," Celebrian says, piling more books in a box. </p><p>"That is, as long as you wish to remain with us," Elrond says, anxiousness dripping from his words.</p><p>"I do," Celebrimbor says and cannot keep himself from adding, "And I must make you a ring, Celebrian. After all, you already have one from me, Elrond, though I will make hers less dangerous."</p><p> </p><p><strong>4. </strong> <b>House of Finwë, multiple time travel fix-it shenanigans collide; hijinks ensue</b></p><p>"Nolofinwë, why are you not with your brother before the Valar?" Finwë's voice was loud, and Maglor groaned from where he was hidden in the bushes - if Morgoth was to come now - but wait, Fingolfin had been in Tirion the last time. </p><p>"We've all come back from the future to prevent many awful things from happening," Finarfin called from the courtyard, where he was dusting off his pale blue robes, "Well, Ingoldo, Nerwen, and I have, I assume Makalaurë and Nolofinwë have as well." </p><p>'That made sense - wait, no it does not,' Maglor thought as he rose from the bushes, 'because Finrod and Galadriel aren't here' he concluded right as Finrod cheerfully appeared around the back of the house with a spider leg in his mouth; Galadriel appeared a few minutes later with a toddler sized but in possession of his adult mind Celebrimbor balanced on one hip holding the Silmarils, Curufin dragged along by his ear, and a look of intense disappointment that Maglor and Fingolfin had not realized they were not the only ones brought back.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>5. Fingolfin &amp; Rochallor, magic soulbonded horse AU (canonical character deaths)</b>
</p><p>Several years later, it would not be a surprise to anyone when Huan settled in the Halls to wait for Celegorm. </p><p>It was, however, a surprise for everyone in the Halls when Rochallor appeared in the Halls moments before Fingolfin himself did, kneeling down on the stone floor and shoving his head against the dead High-King's face until Fingolfin's spirit settled. </p><p>Somehow, they had all missed the bonds between Fingolfin and his horse that now shone when deprived of bodies to hide them, even though it now seemed the most obvious thing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Other Genres</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>1. Fëanor &amp; Fingolfin, “See you in another life, Brother” (sort of character death)</b>
</p><p>"This is the end of all things for most of us," Fingolfin says and carefully avoids looking at where Maedhros and Fingon cling to each other or where Celegorm seems determined to hold Aredhel here by sheer force of will and muscles.</p><p>Fëanor takes a deep breath and tells himself he can - no, he must remember them so that he can fix his sons' hurts in Arda Remade. </p><p>"Nay, I shall see you in another life, Brother," he says and just sees the surprised look on Fingolfin's face before his half-brother disappears as the world shifts.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>2. Celebrimbor/Sauron, hand in unlovable hand </b>
</p><p>There is nothing in the Void surrounding Sauron except for Celebrimbor, who walks through a passage that appears right next to Sauron's endless stretch of nothingness. </p><p>Celebrimbor is not gentle when he grabs Sauron's hand and yanks him up. Sauron knows he is no longer loved - Annatar being loveable had been fake, but Celebrimbor pauses near the passage to speak, "The Dagor Dagorath is coming and I cannot love you now, but if you do not return to him, I will reconsider such."</p><p> </p><p><strong>3. </strong> <b>Maglor &amp; Daeron, banned from the local Renaissance Faire for life</b></p><p>“Do you think they meant our lives or theirs when they said we were banned for life?” Maglor asked, looking back at the Renaissance Faire. The lead minstrel was still screaming, as best as he could tell.</p><p>Daeron shrugged as he said, “I don’t think it matters - they’ll forget us soon enough, though you probably should not have mentioned you actually were around in the Renaissance.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>4. Eärwen &amp; Fëanor, “someone has to be the first to trust”</b>
</p><p>Fëanor is reembodied on a drizzly day in the middle of spring, and does not expect to be greeted by anyone or anything, given that he had sent word to his parents and sons to stay away. </p><p>If he had expected anyone, it would have been Fingolfin, who was far too much like his son and would try to repair things until they broke into dust, and not Eärwen, who had once stood on tiptoes and poured a pitcher of wine over Fëanor's head long before he had descended into kinslaying and madness. </p><p>"Do not look at me like you have never seen me before, Fëanáro," her words come fast and hard and he expects her to scream at him, but instead she only continues, "Come, we must be the first to trust in this new peace or else all the work my husband has done will be for naught."</p><p> </p><p><strong>5. </strong><b>Finrod &amp; Andreth; Andreth/Aegnor, </b> <b> <em>his flame leaped towards me</em> </b></p><p>"I loved your brother. His flame leaped towards me from the first time we met and burnt me, but it did not and will not consume me," Andreth said. </p><p>Finrod looked at her for a moment and then said, "I wish you could meet the Lady Nerdanel, you would enjoy conversation with her."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>6. Harry Potter, Any, Elvendork Potter and the …</b>
</p><p>"Why is he always reading those books?" Sirius asked. </p><p>His godson, Elvendork Potter, sat at the kitchen table with a stack of books around him; they claimed to be history books by the title, but Sirius had been reliably informed by Lily's laughter that they were in fact not actually Muggle history books. </p><p>"Lily says I shouldn't have named him Elvendork if I didn't want him to grow up reading Tolkien, though I still don't understand - that's a new book, anyways, it just came out this year and he wanted it for his birthday, we had to special order it at the bookstore."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>7. Dwarves &amp; Lobelia &amp; Bilbo, hospitality as a competitive sport </b>
</p><p>The thing about Hobbits, and in particular Bilbo Baggins and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, was that they were both highly competitive and lacking any other outlet than hospitality to express such, the dwarves had found. Where Kíli would participate in a bow shooting contests and Gloin axe-throwing, Dwalin any manner of physical fights and Thorin absolutely anything at all, Bilbo considered most of those competitions absolutely out of bounds for polite Hobbit society. </p><p>Instead he turned to the most polite of all Hobbit competitions, that of absolute perfection for one’s guests, and the Dwarves were terrified of the fixed expressions on both his and Lobelia’s faces as they matched each other sip by sip drinking their tea and bite by bite eating their scones, careful to not let a single drop or crumb fall to the table.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>8. Daeron &amp; Maglor, any crossover, two or more characters who happen to share the same name/nickname (<em>A Song of Ice and Fire crossover)</em></b>
</p><p>"There is a courtesan known as Nightingale in Braavos," Maglor said to Daeron. "She is said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and there was a singer of the Night's Watch named Dareon who claimed to have sung before her."</p><p>"Do you mean to torment me by telling me this?" Daeron asked, taking a sip of his wine. </p><p>"Nay, I meant to show you that even on the other side of the world, Luthien still echoes through the song."</p><p>Daeron took another sip and then smiled. "Thank you."</p>
  </div></div>
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